


By Any Other Name

by Karasuno Volleygays (ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Flower Shop Boys, Future Fic, M/M, adorable gooey ass mofos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 12:11:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14736741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor/pseuds/Karasuno%20Volleygays
Summary: They did everything together: lived, worked, and everything in between. But somehow, Yuutarou still had a few surprises up his sleeve and Akira enjoyed them all.





	By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blulious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blulious/gifts).



When the door was closed and locked behind his last customer of the day, Akira heaved a sigh and flung himself onto the battered office chair behind the front desk. “I thought he’d never go away.”

“Why do you say that?” Yuutarou looked up from his broom as he tidied up the floor of the flower shop before closing early like usual on Tuesday afternoons. “He didn’t break anything, didn’t haggle, and didn’t make you take it apart a hundred times.”

“Carnations,” Akira spat, his nose wrinkling while he counted down the cash drawer. “What kind of monster hates his wife so much he buys her a hundred carnations?”

Yuutarou’s brow wrinkled and the corners of his mouth downturned. “Really? A hundred?” He eyed a stand of the flower in question to his right. “Why would anyone want that many?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Akira bagged the money and stowed credit card receipts with it. “Pink ones, too. Nothing says happy birthday like an armload of funeral flowers.”

Chuckling, Yuutarou continued sweeping. “When he comes to pick them up, try to keep from saying something about it. He just wants to do something nice. Maybe she might not google them and figure out what they’re for.”

“Maybe he should get his eyes checked. That would be nice.” Akira breezed into the back room, the sound of Yuutarou’s guffaws following him. Once the day’s sales were recorded and dropped into the safe, he peeled off his teal and white uniform polo and headed for the greenhouse. 

It had never been Akira’s favorite place to be; after all, it was too hot and the cacophony of several different scents was cloying and powerful. Yet it was the part of his day he cherished the most. He could turn up the stereo in the corner and go about the process of disinfecting the workspaces in peace. Yuutarou often helped him, but his company was never unwelcome.

Akira mixed the regular cleaning solution and wiped down every surface, head lightly bobbing in time with the music. He didn’t look up when the door to the greenhouse opened and closed, nor at the gentle scratch of the broom sweeping up in his wake.

Soon, cleanup was complete and Akira could finally pry himself out of the sweaty confines of the flower shop. He lingered on the bench outside of the shop, eyes closed to the relentless sun while he waited. 

He hummed when a hand softly squeezed his shoulder. “You seemed so ready to get out of there. I almost thought you’d go right home.”

“Nah.” Akira curled his fingers over Yuutarou’s. “It’s your turn to make dinner and I found the pork cutlets you bought the other day.” His mouth was already watering at the thought of Yuutarou’s simple but tasty meals, made with love more than skill. “I go where you go, especially when good pork is involved.”

Yuutarou harrumphed. “I’d be put out that you’re with me for my cooking if I didn’t already know you really just hate cleaning out the cat box and doing the dishes.”

Akira rested his cheek on their joined hands and chuckled. “You got me there, but you know what they say. Get you a man who can do both.” He pouted and sat up. “Too hot.”

Next to Akira, a basket lowered onto the bench and Yuutarou patted its lid. “I already made dinner, and I have an idea in mind if you’re feeling up to it.”

“Oh?” Glancing up, Akira’s heart beat a little faster when he saw Yuutarou gazing off into the distance with a beatific smile on his face. “What’s the occasion?”

“We’ll see.” Yuutarou stuck out his hand at the curb, and seconds later, a taxi stopped in front of him. “Care to find out? If you don’t remember, I’ll tell you when we get there.”

Akira shrugged and followed Yuutarou into the car, immediately put at ease by the air conditioning running in the cab. With a yawn, he burrowed his face into Yuutarou’s shirt and let his eyes close, lulled to rest by the dull hum of the road beneath the tires.

He was shaken awake when the taxi lurched to a stop and the door opened. Bleary-eyed, Akra blinked away the last little haze of his nap and asked, “Are we there? Where are we?”

“We’re here.” Yuutarou had their picnic basket in one hand and held out the other to Akira. “I hope you like it.”

Yuutarou’s cheeks pinkened at the comment, and Akira knew right away that this day was designed with far more effort than an afterthought, and it definitely had some meaning. He didn’t know what it was yet, but he wasn’t about to disappoint Yuutarou by admitting it. When he inhaled the fresh scent of the grassy knoll in front of them, his entire being hummed with pleasure. Of course, Yuutarou would pick a place like this for something important.

It wasn’t Yuutarou’s birthday, which was a few weeks off, and not his own birthday, which was a couple of months before. Their first date anniversary in December.

The picnic blanket was already spread out and the food unpacked before Akira plopped down with a sigh. “I hate to say this, Yuutarou, but I honestly can’t think of it.”

“Nah, I didn’t think you would.” Yuutarou settled next to him and poured iced tea for them both. “I think it means more to me than it does to you, but I kind of want to celebrate it anyway.”

With no more information forthcoming, curiosity burned in Akira’s belly. He worked his tension by chewing too hard on the beautiful premade bowl of pork curry. The soft, well-cooked chunks of meat were full of flavor, and he could barely taste it. His mind was far too fixed on the fact that there was something that important to Yuutarou and he couldn’t even begin to guess what it was.

“This is driving me nuts.” Akira frowned and set down his bowl. “I can’t even figure out what it is I don’t know.”

Yuutarou looked him up and down before nodding. “I think I can give you a hint.” He fished around in the picnic basket and pulled out a long, thin cardboard box, handing it to Akira. “I hope it’s not worse for wear. It’s been in there since we left the store.”

Akira thumbed open the box, eyes widening when he saw the bold purple blooms of a lilac stem, its end encased in the plastic water tubes they used to sell single stems at their shop. They were a little peaked from the lack of light and air, but it only took a few moments for Akira to make the connection. “I gave you some of these once.”

Chuckling, Yuutarou sprawled back onto the picnic blanket and grinned up at the sky. “I didn’t think you’d even remember that. I just wanted to celebrate it at some point, and when I came across this place, I knew it was time.”

“Time for what?” Akira set his food aside and sat cross-legged, staring down at Yuutarou. “Yuutarou, wasn’t that fifteen  _ years  _ ago?”

“Exactly.” He reached up and smoothed his thumb over Akira’s cheek. “It was the day I knew you liked me, too. Sure, it took me almost six months to work up the courage to actually ask you out, but at least I knew you might not turn me down flat.”

Akira cocked his head to the side and his nose scrunched in concentration. “Huh?” He dragged his thoughts back to their final year in high school, to the day he handed Yuutarou a single stem of purple lilacs. He vaguely recalled asking his mother if he could plant some various flora in their front yard, and the lilac bush had been one of his earliest successes. The offering had been evidence of triumph given to the only person he knew who would even care.

“I —” He swallowed around that confession, wondering how Yuutarou had taken that single wisp of a stem and shaped both their lives with it. Finally, he admitted, “I’m not sure I get it.”

“Really?” Yuutarou sat up and fixed his gaze on the flowers in Akira’s hand. “You just handed it to me and walked away with this odd sort of smile. I went home and googled them and their meaning, and that’s how you told me you liked me for the first time.”

Akira raised a brow and scratched his temple. “I was proud of them and I knew you were having kind of a bad week, so I gave you one of my first cuts off the bush I planted at home.” He twirled the stem between his fingers. “If they have a meaning other than ‘hey, these are pretty and I hope you like them’, then I don’t know what it is.”

Jaw dropping, Yuutarou’s entire face turned red and he quickly jerked his head to look at literally anything else. “They mean first love. I thought you were telling me you liked me. That’s why I finally asked you out later that year. Since we weren’t on the team anymore and could spend our weekends on something other than volleyball, I thought you might actually say yes.”

Akira buried his face in his hands before Yuutarou could see him dissolve into laughter. However, his shaking shoulders gave him away, and he received a soft push on his arm and a grumbled, “Hey.”

“I didn’t even think about dating you until you asked me,” Akira explained, enjoying the way Yuutarou’s confusion morphed into betrayal. “And when you did ask me, I thought I’d give it a try. We’d just do stuff we did already anyway, plus some kissing. I never kissed anyone before, so I thought I’d try it out.”

“Oh, fantastic.” Yuutarou drained his iced tea and let out a wry laugh. “Our entire relationship was based on me being an idiot.”

The amusement on Akira’s face dropped away at those words. “Why do you say that? Everything worked out, didn’t it?”

Yuutarou turned his gaze toward the flowers in Akira’s hands, fingers gently brushing the delicate petals. Something softened in his expression, and Akira’s heart beat a little bit faster. “To me, every time I look at lilacs, they remind me of you. I guess it’s kind of hard to swallow that it was all in my head.”

Akira pushed the basket aside and crawled across the blanket to curl up in Yuutarou’s lap. He draped his arms around slumped shoulders. “You know what they say: a lilac by any other name would smell as sweet.” He brushed his lips against Yuutarou’s and smiled against his mouth. “So what if it happened a little different. It still happened.”

“But it —”

“Still means something.” Akira pressed his finger against Yuutarou’s lips and shook his head. “You’re forgetting something. You said they mean first love, right?” Yuutarou nodded, eyes wide. “You thought it was mine, but it was actually yours. You put all of this together to celebrate it, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

With that, Akira sat down beside Yuutarou and set into the rest of his meal.

They plowed through the rest of their picnic shoulder to shoulder and with gusto, until both of them were reeling. Yawning loudly, Akira wrapped his arms around Yuutarou’s waist and sagged into his side. “I’m so full.”

“Not sure I can move.” Yuutarou leaned back into the grass and tugged Akira onto his chest. “And I even had something else planned. But walking.”

Akira raised his head. “Oh?”

Groaning, they both shambled to their feet and reeled through the meadow hand in hand until they hit the treeline. “This way.” Yuutarou pointed along the edge of the wood over a short, rolling hill. “You’ll know it when you see it.”

And see it he did. Akira’s breath caught when he laid eyes on the house. It wasn’t the standard house that sat on every plot of every block; it had to be decades old. The paint on the siding was faded and dull and the roof missing a few tiles, but what drew his attention was the row of lilac bushes running across the entire front of the house.

“How did you even —” Akira’s arms tightened around Yuutarou’s bicep. “What is this place?”

Yuutarou beamed at him. “Ours, I hope.” When Akira’s eyes bulged in surprise, he added, “I know how much you love growing things. Not just working with things that grow, but actually  _ giving _ them life. I thought maybe it was time to give you a place to do that.”

Words lived and died on Akira’s tongue as he took in what Yuutarou was saying. “You mean you want to —”

“Buy a house I’ll probably spend years fixing up and live there with you?” Yuutarou grunted as he awkwardly dropped to his knees. “If you’ll have me.”

Akira tackled Yuutarou and pinned him back on the grass. “We’re going to be so broke.”

Yuutarou kneaded his bottom lip with his teeth. “Does that mean you’ll —”

“Of course I will.” He rested his cheek on Yuutarou’s chest. “You know, Kunimi Yuutarou has a nice ring to it.”

“So does Kindaichi Akira.” Yuutarou hefted Akira closer and smiled. “Wanna trade?”

Unable to stop smiling, Akira rested his forehead against Yuutarou’s. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

He wrapped his arms around Yuutarou and hummed in contentment. Full of love, food, and the promise of far more to come, Akira couldn’t imagine being anywhere else than here at the doorstep of the rest of their lives where they’d spend it together.


End file.
